As far as game developers go, Naughty Dog are undoubtedly up there with the best of them. First formed as Jam Software by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the company created two games for the Apple II and two for the Apple IIGS, Amiga and DOS, changing their name to Naughty Dog before the release of the latter of these, a title named Keef The Thief. After producing a poorly received game on the Mega Drive for Electronic Arts called Rings Of Power, Gavin and Rubin's creation of a game called Way Of The Warrior got the attention of Mark Cerny, currently known as the lead architect of the Playstation 4 but then the Vice President of Universal Interactive Studios. Signed by Cerny to develop games for Universal, Naughty Dog expanded and came up with Crash Bandicoot. They haven't looked back since, having made a total of twelve games for Sony's assorted Playstation consoles over the last eighteen years. Each of these games have been well-received, to the extent that their mean review score on GameRankings is currently 88.6%. As a result of this, it's not uncommon for gaming fans to state their belief that Naughty Dog have never made a bad game. This statement cannot be held as entirely truthful, given the lack of praise awarded to their early titles, but since 1996 it is a fact that the company have consistently put out high quality releases, regardless of changes in personnel (Gavin and Rubin having long since left to pursue other endeavours). Ranking said releases is therefore a difficult task, but one that will be attempted over the course of the next few pages....
